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LGBT COUPLES KISSED outside the Dáil today as part of a protest demanding government action on hate crime legislation.
Organised in response to a number of homophobic attacks in Dublin, protesters gathered together to kiss, hug and hold hands to highlight the lack of hate crime law in Ireland.
Ireland is one of the few countries in the EU which has no purpose-built legislation to deal with hate crimes, which means that there are no public statistics available on hate crimes or racist attacks.
Eddie McGuinness, one of the organisers of the Dublin Pride Festival, led the crowd in a kissing protest – dubbed ‘shift the hate away’.
“It’s difficult at times to walk down the street holding my husband’s hand because you do still get the glances, you still get the glares. And also you still get the verbal abuse of people calling you names,” said McGuinness – who was a victim of a homophobic attack several years ago.
He said that the reporting system for hate crimes needs to be improved, while the courts need the powers to ensure that “individuals pay for the crimes that they do”.
In October, a man went to an area in Coolock after arranging a meeting on a dating app. However, when he arrived he was met with a group of teenage boys with weapons and attacked.
“Legislation needs to come up to the standards where we need it. It’s not taking anyone’s voice away. It is actually giving more power to An Garda Síochána and also the judges to actually be able to to deal with instances of both verbal and physical abuse,” McGuinness said.
He called on anyone attacked to report it to the Gardaí. “Hate crime is a fact. Hate crime is not going away,” McGuinness added.
Niall Cowley, who attended the protest, said his friend was attacked two months ago for kissing his boyfriend in public.
“For some unknown reason, there has been a surge in hate crime incidents,” he said.
“The police and the guards and the courts aren’t able to deal with his case in any different way than like a drunken brawl on the street. And we all know that the motivations for those two crimes are very different but the courts can’t deal with the crimes any differently,” he said.
The government is currently carrying out a public consultation on hate speech, while the Department of Justice is researching how other countries use legislation to tackle hate crime.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that this research is being finalised and when completed justice minister Charlie Flanagan “will bring forward proposals for new hate crime legislation”.
The spokesperson added that the department is “working to update Ireland’s criminal law on both hate speech and hate crime as an urgent priority”.
Also at the protest today was Megan Reilly, the Union of Students in Ireland Vice-President for Equality and Citizenship, who attended the protest with girlfriend Aisling Cusack.
“We can’t have an effective method of reporting these instances and have any idea about the levels of racial discrimination, the levels of homophobia, transphobia, whatever it is, without having this legislation in place,” she said.
“It’s very important that we have the legislation in place so people are able to come forward and report, so they’re not worried about reporting,” she added.
“No better way to spend a lunch break than to go and kiss my girlfriend in protest, demanding the government make a move on laws to protect us,” Cusack said.
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A suspended sentence? He should be locked up for years along with all the others guilty of cover ups. Like the majority of Irish people I was born and grew up Catholic but haven’t practised for years, if any other organisation behaved in the way this does it would be shut down years ago. What has come to light about this organisation over the last number of years should surely be enough to destroy whatever bit of credibility they were seen as having in the past.
@Mary Cullinane: Nobody is born Catholic, It was forced on you before you had the sense to realise it was a lie. Thankfully it’s dying off now. Good riddance to it.
@Mary Cullinane: I agree with you about the sentence, but at least he was charged with the offence. Over here, there was widespread systematic covering up done by senior and junior clerics. How many bishops here have been charged?
@Mary Cullinane: really he should share the cell and sentence of whoever he was protecting.
Nonetheless the conviction itself is a major step forward , even in a secular state like France.
I read a theory once that in the turmoil of the first world financial meltdown, some aristocrats were prosecuted as normal subjects. And that that shift, a fall from grace, was one of the early seeds leading to the French Revolution.
@Rob Cahill: I am 64 now and Ireland was such a different place back then and indeed for many years after I was born. I would be the first to admit that we were brainwashed by the Church’s teaching as regards so many things we all accept as being part of life now like contraception, divorce, the stigma of being an unmarried mother etc etc. I don’t blame my parents for bringing me up Catholic, they didn’t know any different themselves, they lived in a time when there was no television, very little radio, no internet & so on and it wasn’t until television became common in households and people began to see life outside of our own little bubble that we began to question things and see that maybe everything the Church said wasn’t always right. What really made me stop practising was when the whole abuse thing started to come to light & I realised that here were these Priests & Bishops telling me what I could & couldn’t do in my life & then realising the horrors of what was actually going on in their own organisation. I still consider myself Christian and I like to think that there is something else after this life but no more organised man made religion for me.
This article is up 2 hours and still no sign of Greg Kelly to remind us that abuse happens ousid the church too so it’s all ok.
@Rob Cahill: or the bould Seamus. (either the same person or they’re romantic lovers)
@Rob Cahill: Well said. Spread the word!!!!
@Mary Cullinane: Lovely reply.
@Rob Cahill: I have never seen Greg or anyone else condone child abuse on here.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: I can’t believe that you are teaching young people. God help them.
This goes right to the top; Pope Francis himself is known to have moved abusers around so I don’t see why he can’t go to trial, unless there’s a Vatican City law that would prevent it.
Would Italian law take precedence?
@bopter: the Vatican is a state in itself
@bopter: what a loada b0ll0x all this perceived cleaning up of the church is. Nothing but lip service which at least should have been paid a decade ago or when he came into power. There isn’t one person in the hierarchy that genuinely wants to clean up the church. They’re only now putting in concrete safeguards and procedures for protecting children. No one in their right mind would leave their child in the care of the church now and they know it. It’s all smoke.
@bopter: Italian laws are for Italy not France. The said holy see being a free state has its own laws. This bishop appeared before a French Court of justice and the French law allied. Now nobody believed that he would be condemned because there was no direct proof.
Recently watched an episode of Codes and Conspiracies “The Vatican” some of the stuff the church got up to and still is doing would make your toes curl…it’s shocking but not surprising…
@Robin Basstard: Some of the stuff the church got up to with my family alone is ridiculous.. I assume most people have the same stories somewhere in their history.
This is disgraceful, 68 is not too old to prosecute..the statue of limitations in law should NOT apply to child rape or complicity in child rape. This is not an ordinary crime, it is vile and pure evil and needs to be properly punished.
Suspended? Where is the deterrence when THIS is the message being sent to the next cardinal who wants to cover up child rape?
Honestly as a practicing Catholic, I am shocked by this sentence. If as stated this was a normal individual they would be locked up for a long time put on the Sex offenders list and forgotten about.
This case is about covering up the offence which if it was murder you would be sentenced according to the crime who h is a long time in jail..
@Sportmad: So stop practising it. Why do you need any organisation nevermind one so corrupt inbetween you and your deity??
Different rules for certain people
Does the church never learn. Shame on them
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